We are, in fact, at a crucial moment in research on multiraciality. The idea that race is socially, rather than biologically, constructed is well-accepted in academy and is gaining purchase in the larger society. Most recent research related to multiracial identity begins from the standpoint that racial categories are socially constructed and racial identity is constructed on an individual level through social interactions and cognitive development. Acceptance of these tenets begs the question: if we believe that race is socially constructed, to what extent are we re-inscribing fixed racial categories by studying multiraciality? If there are no "races" how can there be "mixed races"? Before proceeding as a research community, we need to address these questions and explore potential solutions.

Attucks himself was ignored for long periods of American history. Kachun says while the Boston Massacre was remembered in the 1770â€™s into the 1780â€™s, those killed were rarely mentioned by name. But Kachun says around the time of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, more attention was paid to the role of the working class in the American Revolution. Then as the anti-slavery movement became more active, the story of the mixed-race man killed in 1770 was told more often. By the end of the 1840â€™s and in the 1850â€™s, Kachun says Attucks was often referred to as a figure in the Revolution.

If Attucks had not been mixed race, Kachun says his name may not have come so much over time. He says that very few people can name any of the others killed at the Boston Massacre. Kachun says Attucks was identified as mixed-race or â€śmulatto,â€ť but the initial newspaper accounts and the coronerâ€™s report identified him as â€śMichael Johnson.â€ť Kachun says that had led to theories that Crispus Attucks was hiding his identity because he had escaped slavery in 1750. But Kachun says there is no evidence to support that claim…